Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I thank the witnesses very much for being here. This is a really important session. Some of them might be aware that yesterday was a very important day for us in Dublin 15, in that the report of the Dublin 15 task force for the forward planning of special education provision was finalised with different stakeholders, including the Department, the NCSE, patrons and some of the people present. Ms Lynch was involved and Helena Trench represented the IPPN. I thank Ms Lynch for her involvement. It is directly based on the lived experience of Dublin 15 in formulating future policy. Dublin 15 was the hardest place in the country to get a school place for children with additional needs last year. If we can fix the policy on Dublin 15, we can fix it everywhere. While I am here, I thank the parents who were involved in that, including Fiona, Sheila and Catriona, and our principals, Helena and Pat, for their relentless hard work and advocacy on this.

It strikes me that data sharing and communication are an important part of this. That these are not working is having a detrimental impact on families who feel everything is up to them, as the witnesses said. Based on that, I want to ask them about circulars 8/24 and 39/25 which outline a new process and timeline for 2026 and shortening the notification period now required by parents and schools to the NCSE if children require a special education placement. It is good we are moving towards a more established timeline, but to address Ms Cahill’s point, we need forward planning. We need a five-year forward plan. What needs to happen to support that process and make it effective? The Government is talking about a campaign through the NCSE, but does this need to go wider than that? Do we need to talk to preschools, CDNT teams and HSE primary care teams? Some of the parents are asking me what is going to happen if the deadline is missed. I want to know what the witnesses think about that process and what we need to watch out for.